1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to Gantt charts, and more particularly to apparatuses and methods for dynamic creation of phase Gantt charts.
2. Description of the Related Art
Project management involves the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to a broad range of activities, in order to accomplish specific goals for a particular project. For example, project managers may develop a project plan by defining a project's goals and objectives, specifying the tasks required to achieve those goals and objectives, allocating the necessary resources, and doing all of the above within an allocated budget in a specified amount of time.
One of the challenges a project manager may face is accurately identifying the tasks that are necessary in order to complete a project on time and within a budget. For example, Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are senior executives in an organization responsible for all aspects of the organizations' information technology (IT) and computer systems and line of business managers are executives that are responsible for the performance of their business units. These executives, among others, may need to understand the whole landscape of their IT organization, from human resources availability, to the processes implemented and followed, projects and technology employed, and budgeting and time constraints allowed, while being able to communicate all of the above information with upper management in a concise and easy fashion.
A method of illustration for accomplishing the above goals may be through the use of graphs and charts. Many different types of charts may be used in practice, often depending on the size and complexity of a project. For example, a Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart developed as a production tool in 1917 by Henry L. Gantt. A Gantt chart graphically displays the time relationships between the different tasks in a project, a tool that helps a project manager plan, coordinate and track specific tasks for a given project.
Gantt charts may illustrate a project's status by using a horizontal axis that represents the total time span of the project, broken down into increments and a vertical axis that represents the tasks that make up the project. Also provided, are horizontal bars of varying lengths that represent the sequences, timing and time span for each task. It may be noted that the time spans of each horizontal bar may overlap. As the project progresses, darkened bars or arrowheads may be used to indicate the completed tasks, or the portions of the tasks that have been completed.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to have apparatuses and methods for the dynamic creation of phase Gantt charts in order to address the needs of project managers and allow them to make optimum use of time and resources, run projects efficiently and monitor their progress effectively.